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The Dean Martin Summer Show (1966)
Back when Variety Shows had Summer Replacements
In the 1960's and early 70's, TV Variety Shows were as prevalent as Prime Time Soaps Operas were to become in the 80's, and "Reality" Shows are in the first decade of the 21st Century. It was also common in the 60's to bring in a summer host for a Variety Show, instead of showing reruns all summer as was the tradition with dramas and comedies.
One of the most popular Variety Shows in 1966 (#14 in it's first year) was Dean Martin's, first airing in the Fall of 1965. By the summer of 1966 Dan Rowan and Dick Martin (no relation to Dean) were chosen to host the Dean Martin Summer Show.
The comedy team of "Rowan and Martin", with Rowan as the set-up straight man and Martin as the daft one, did well enough that summer for NBC to develop their own show for them 2 years later: " Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In".
My favorite joke from the Dean Martin Summer Show (I was 10 years old at the time):
Dan Rowan: "Did you read the papers saying that somewhere in the world, there's a baby born every second?"
Dick Martin: "Every Second? Wow! We've got to find that woman and stop her!"
The Tim Conway Comedy Hour (1970)
One of the most inventive comedies ever . . . .
Tim Conway, among many other accolades, was a very successful sketch guest on the Carol Burnett Show, appearing more than any other guest (12 times) in that variety show's first 3 years (1968 70). CBS decided to build a similar variety show around Tim, and what a cast, including:
Art Metrano (the "da-da-DAH-da" Magic Guy fingers shaped in a zero, bumped together, then connected . . . graduating to the Police Academy series)
Sally Struthers (before "All in the Family")
MacLean Stevenson (before M*A*S*H)
And among the writers, future writer for All in the Family and the Mary Tyler Moore Show (and actress) Mary Kay Place.
Tim insisted on very little and often no rehearsal with the actual cast before the weekly filming (a famous Dean Martin habit). He felt that it stayed fresher that way. The truth, of course, was that Tim was far more likely to catch cast members unaware and make them crack up in front of a live audience.
I only remember one skit from the show in detail(I was 14 at the time): a locker room, with a row of lockers facing the camera and a door in the middle of that row, was filled with dejected uniformed football players seated on the benches in front. The narrator for the skit set-up said something to the effect of: many a football team has found itself losing at half-time, on its way to certain defeat when the right words of their coach could inspire and pull a victory out of disaster.
Just then, Coach Conway appears in the doorway, standing silently, waiting for a team member to yell "ten-hut" which Art Metrano did, and the team stood to its feet. But the team obviously was not prepared to see Coach Conway dressed not as a football coach but as Hitler(!) - with the hair, mustache, uniform and swagger stick! Art Metrano was the first to see Conway, and immediately burst into uncontrollably loud belly laughter, followed by the rest of the cast/team. The team members were literally doubled over laughing, and although Conway attempted several times to finish his first Hitler-imitating sentence, the skit simply devolved in to a laugh-fest. Since no one was able to regain enough composure to continue, the skit went to commercial without finishing.
Sadly, the show was canceled after 4 months.